Before I tell you my usual stories of courage, honor, and marketing achievement, I've gotta get something off my chest.  Which is:

This whole "recession" thing everyone's blathering about was merely fabricated by the media (you know, the people we trust to deliver the "news" to us) so they'll have more to, uh, g-r-i-p-e about while they assault us with election propaganda.

Did you know that ABC, NBC, CBS and CNN have predicted 40 out of the last 2 recessions?

Yeah, look out baby, cuz the sky is falling. We're teetering on the brink of financial disaster and you should yank all your money outta the bank and hide it under your mattress and retreat into a fallout shelter with your portable TV.  We can all stand together holding hands in stark terror, as Katie Couric faithfully reports the demise of planet earth.

Whatever.

I'm not participating in the current recession and you don't have to either. Look, grow your business, buy your beer, go on vacation, live life as normal and ignore the prophets of misery.  OK?

I'm dead serious about this.  The recession IS a fabrication of the media, but becomes a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy.  Because of the talking heads and all their cheery news, the Mortgage biz is nearly in Intensive Care. Yeah, some people are being affected by this.

And some not.

So understand this: Whatever happens, whether it's a mild blip or bigger than that, there are two kinds of people:

1) Passive Victims (the 95%)

and

2) Alpha Warriors (the 5%).

Passive Victims see all this as bad, bad, bad.  They react in fear and hunker down for a l-o-o-o-o-ng winter.  They cut back advertising and training budgets and just sorta wait until everything gets better.

Sorry, but here's the problem with that: A whole bunch of 'em just go out of business. It's like that saying from the Wild West: "The cowards never started.  The weak died along the way.  Only the strong made it through."

Alpha Warriors don't fear economic downturns.  Because that's when they put their roots deeper.  They find less obvious ways to acquire customers.  Many times they do the opposite of the crowd and invest more into customer acquisition than everyone else, not less.  While the Passive Victims are holding hands watching Katie Couric, the Alpha warriors are quietly making headway.

The water goes up, the Passive Victims drown, and when the water drains away, the landscape is cleared and the Alpha Warriors enjoy a feast.

That which does not kill you, makes you stronger.

IF YOU LIVE IN THE USA: Then there is something else I want you to think about....

We live in a GLOBAL economy. Hey pal, listen up: People in China and the Philippines and India and Australia ain't listening to Ms. Couric.  They ain't taking ownership of any "recession." (That's why you see so many mixed signals in the financial world.  Like a headline I saw today, "Stocks Up Despite Economic Fears.") The market is too intelligent for any one person's version of 'How to lie with statistics.' 

You can decide to lose, but that only guarantees you that someone besides you will win.

You wanna slow down?  Somebody else in some other country will speed up.  This is the Internet age. You can get things done, products made, services delivered, from almost ANYWHERE.  More than 1/3 of my own customers are overseas.  The people from Australia and Singapore and Hong Kong who come to my 4-man intensives and Gladiator and Roundtable meetings, they're SHARP. Hard working. Eager students.

Above all you cannot afford to lose your edge.

I LOVE working with 5% Alpha Warriors.  There's nothing like a restless mind that is constantly searching for another way in, a better way to present that offer, a new "Widget" to promote, a new way of engaging the customer's attention. And there's nothing like what happens when Alpha Warriors get together and exchange ideas. You wanna recession-proof your business? Surround yourself with Alpha Warriors who together dominate markets and assemble kingdoms and fortunes with digital magic. Alchemy. Turning lead into Gold.

Last week my Roundtable members and I met together privately in Orlando, Florida. Picture this: Well over a dozen people who, for the most part, dominate their industries. Captains of a publicity firm, a drug rehab, a membership site for Home Schoolers, a custom wood shop, a hi-tech business consultant, a telemarketing firm, a FAX service, a UK real estate specialist, a corporate organizational consulting firm, a cognitive engineer, a preeminent web hosting company... ALL of us discussing both our victories and our most perplexing problems, iron sharpening iron. The intensity in the room is palpable.

For the most part, these guys are slaying the competition too.  In November one guy did about 3 days of research on negative keywords and slashed his AdWords cost from $70,000 a month to $40,000 a month with no drop in sales.  Now he's re-investing the money into: You guessed it, more aggressive marketing.

Another started with my Definitive Guide to Google AdWords three and a half years ago and has built his company from scratch to $8.1 million in sales. An Alpha Warrior.

You can go to the poorest country in the world; you can go to any big city in the biggest recession you've ever seen; and despite the outside conditions there will ALWAYS be restaurants providing fine dining to astute individuals who are unaffected and undeterred by the gloom and misery around them. 

Those are the 5% Alpha Warriors.

If you're reading this and not liking it and wanting to tell me about your six friends who all lost their jobs last week, then... I'm not so sure you're an Alpha Warrior.  These thoughts I'm planting in your head might be bad for you.  They might interfere with the News Media's mind-control scheme.

On the other hand, if you find yourself resonating with this, if you know that when things get gritty you like to dig deep, hunker down and carve out an even deeper groove in the world, then yeah, you're an Alpha Warrior. 

I've set aside some dates in my calendar for Alpha Warrior meetings, 4-day intensives that I hold in my office: February 19-20 and 27-28; March 12-13 and 26-27.  This is the on-ramp to my Roundtable group that meets privately three times per year.  If during this so-called "recession" you plan on putting your roots deeper and dominating your market even more thoroughly, this is the place you'll want to be.

Carpe Deim - Seize The Day.  

And don't let Katie Couric screw with your mind.

Perry Marshall